Over 400 dogs and their humans swarmed Marina Vista Park on Sunday to ring in the 17th annual Haute Dog Howl’oween Parade.
The parade included raffles for gift baskets, adoption centers and booths for pet insurance and apparel. There were also multiple costume contests for humans, dogs and group costumes.
Costumes ranged from simple firefighter coats on dogs to groups of families all following a theme, such as a group of painters and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Mission Viejo resident Mira Tyni and her family dressed up as characters from “Frozen,” with their dog as Olaf the snowman. They placed as a finalist for the group category.
“I was excited that the dog and the baby cooperated,” Tyni said. “We placed last year, but this is the first time we got the finalist ribbon. We were trying to come up with a good group idea and this kind of came together.”
One Boston Terrier named Lucy was dressed up as Dr. Seuss. Her costume came complete with the iconic “clean-up-mobile,” and her two owners dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. The group took home the first place prize, which included a year’s supply of dog food from Petcurean.
“I’ve been working on this since January. Every weekend a little bit,” Lucy’s owner and Thing 1, George Pisano said. “The hardest part is getting it here and getting Lucy ready. I’ve been practicing with her everyday for the past two weeks so she’ll sit in the car and put her paws up on the steering wheel.”
This year marked the couple’s fourth time bringing Lucy to the parade, and their second time winning first place.
“I’m an attorney so 364 days out of the year I’m in a stuffy office in downtown LA,” Pisano said. “This is my one day I get to come out and let loose and show off a little of my creativity [while doing] something I really love.”
This year, Lucy was invited to join the Boston Tea Party, a group for Boston Terriers. For some people, the event offers a sense of community among dog owners as well as the pets themselves.
Carson resident Frank Harris attended his 12th parade this year with his Poodle Sadie who was dressed up as a fairy.
“I love dogs and animals. This is my third dog in the parade,” Harris said. “I love the socialization of dogs and the people who love dogs.”
Haute Dog founder and organizer Justin Rudd said the connections made between attendees and pets are one of the best parts of the dog show.
“A lot of people have a very nice time on a special day with their pet,” said Rudd. “It’s a way to raise some money to help other animal welfare agencies and for people to come out and do something special with their dog. The connections I see with people and their dog are probably my favorite part.”
Rudd started the parade in order to give people a chance to bond over their love of dogs and draw attention to pet adoption agencies. The money that is raised during the Howl’oween parade goes to Rudd’s nonprofit organization “Community Action Team,” which aims to promote the social-well being of people in their communities.
“I love the fact that people are looking at dogs and cats for their forever homes,” Rudd said. “If you have a dog parade people are going to come out and that’s when they see the dogs for adoption.”
Nonprofit organization Into Canine Adoption, Rehabilitation and Rescue Dog Rescue put two dogs into a new home at the parade, and gathered up plenty more adoption applications.
“We don’t typically do same day adoptions, but someone lived down the street so we were able to get the home check done and finalized,” foster coordinator Katie Rongen said.
The next Haute Dog Howl’oween Parade will be next year at Marina Vista Park. Those interested in entering their dogs can go to http://www.hautedogs.org/howloween.html.